Many conventional interactive stories, such as those which can be played on computers, video game devices, or other interactive media, have significant weaknesses and disadvantages. Despite the efforts of interactive stories to make participants feel more engaged than they would be in more traditional media, such as by viewing print or film media, the story experience is often a disappointment. After interacting with a typical interactive story, many participants feel comparatively less engaged and less emotionally involved than they might have felt by merely reading or viewing the story through a traditional medium.
There is a need in the art for interactive stories that are more emotionally engaging and which can offer a new dimension to interacting with a character in a story. Despite the evolution of computer graphics technology in video games over the course of time, storytelling techniques employed in interactive story games have remained fundamentally unchanged. Conventional interactive stories still maintain an inherent focus on controlling the actions of characters, and do not sufficiently factor thoughts, emotions, or other aspects of character mental states into telling the story. The capacity for a player to manipulate character mental states is disregarded or completely ignored in many existing interactive stories.
In interactive stories presented in video games and other electronic media, player interaction and game play typically occur in the “external world” of the story. If the characters have any mental life or psychological existence in the story, the player is not usually given knowledge of what it is. But even when minimal information about the character mental state is communicated to the player, the “inner life” of the character typically remains completely non-interactive with the story; the player can only interact with the “outer life” or physical actions of the character.
As long as the need for enhanced mental and emotional engagement in interactive stories remains unsatisfied, there can be no progress towards the goal of providing participants with a more meaningful and enriching experience in association with controlling or directing an interactive story.